View source for Ice Ventures on Lower Saranac Lake

'''Ice Ventures on Lower Saranac Lake''':

'''Harness Racing'''

* Earliest record of horse and sulky racing on [[Lower Saranac Lake]]: 1894 <sup>1</sup>
* Harness ice races sponsored by the Northern New York Trotting Circuit.
* Lower Saranac Lake races most popular; others held in places such as Tupper Lake, Malone and Ticonderoga.
* Special round-trip race-weekend rates offered by [[New York Central]] and the [[Adirondack & St. Lawrence|Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railroad]]<nowiki/>s from both NYC and Malone to Saranac Lake: 2 cents a mile, 50 cent minimum tickets (1895)
* Lower Saranac Lake spectators estimated at: 3,000 in 1894; 4,000 in 1897.
* In 1895, prizes awarded totaled $600, a whopping $2,000 in 1898.
* Contestants traveled from as far as Plattsburgh, Glens Falls and Vermont.
* First tracks: one-mile long kite shapes beginning and ending at the judges’ stand by the Ampersand Hotel.
* Kite shape abandoned few years later for half-mile straight track, allowing spectators to watch the race in its entirety.
* Bicycle sulky introduced in 1895; a sulky with pneumatic bicycle tires which gave the driver a two second advantage over his competition and won him the race.

'''Transportation'''

* Ice provided shortcuts during the winter: faster route to summertime water-access-only locations: easier route than circuitous and lengthy land routes.
* Billy Burns recalls the account of young [[Tom Peacock|Thomas H. Peacock]] <sup>2</sup>, who in the early 1870’s would get up at 3 a.m. on a winter’s morning to set off with his father and drive two teams of horses hauling supplies to lumber camps: hay, 25-30 bushels of potatoes, two or three quarters of beef and the mail. They crossed the ice of Lower Saranac Lake, then crossed [[Middle Saranac Lake|Middle Saranac]] (Round), plowed through the snowy woods to cross [[Upper Saranac Lake|Upper Saranac]], past [[Deer Isl|Deer Isle]], and entered the woods again. They received a hearty welcome when finally arriving at the lumber camps at Big and Little Wolf ponds about 9 p.m.
* Ice accidents were numerous, men, horses, cars and snowmobiles all plunging through the solid ice.
* One of the earliest reports is from 1893 when George Cronk and Joseph and Henry Manley fell through the ice while making a trip to Tupper Lake. All managed to crawl out only to later die of exposure.
* Other accounts include the 1948 drowning of Dr. [[Charles H. Haskins]], whose car broke through the ice while driving a shortcut to his camp on Lower Saranac Lake

'''Ice Fishing'''

* Pike and Perch are the most commonly caught fish during the winter on Lower Saranac.
* A tip-up (wooden cross-shaped structure which holds a baited hook at the end of a reel of line) hangs across +/- 8 hole in the ice and springs a red flag when the fish bite, alerting the fishermann to a strike.
* When frigid winds blow, fisherman hunker down inside stove warmed wooden shanties and tents or just retreat to their truck cabs.
* Lower Saranac has plentiful fish and is not a stocked lake.
* 4 inches of ice supports walkers, 5-6 will hold snowmobiles, 7-12 for light cars, and 14-16 full-sized trucks.

'''Harvesting Ice'''

* [[Harry Duso]] began harvesting ice on Cresent Bay back in the thirties.
* 5 people worked 3 days to harvest 1,500 blocks, each measuring about 11 x 22 x 10 or more.
* Blocks, stored in Crescent Bay’s ice house, were packed in sawdust until summer.
* Until the late 1970s, the Dusos supplied ice for summer people who rented their cabins, owned summer homes or camped at the 300 campsites around the lake.
* The ice, delivered by boat, was used in ice boxes or in covered steel boxes sunk deep in the ground.

'''Ice-Out Dates'''

* The [[Saranac Lake Fish and Game Club]] held ice-out guessing contests for years.
* Contests in later years held by [[Saranac Lake Boat and Waterways Club|Saranac Lake Boat and Waterway Club]].
* Harry Duso and his son, Don, have for many years, recorded ice-out dates on Lower Saranac Lake. The following statistics are courtesy of Don Duso.

[[File:Ice_Ventures_on_Lower_Saranac_Lake.jpg|thumb|981x981px|Ice Ventures on Lower Saranac Lake Display, by Caper Tissot, Shown at History Day 2008.]]

'''1907-1958:'''

* Earliest ice-outs: March 28, 1907 - March 29, 1946 - March 31, 1945
* Average ice-out: April 26
* Latest ice-outs: May 6, 1956 - May 7, 1943 - May 8, 1926

'''1996-2008:'''

* Earliest ice-outs: April 13, 1998 - April 14, 1999 - April 16, 2005
* Average ice-out: April 24
* Latest ice-outs: April 26, 1996, 1997, 2001

''Original text by Caperton Tissot''

=== Footnotes ===
1. ''The Adirondack News'', January 6, 1894

2. (''Adirondack Record'', October 6, 1941)